would gladly be esteemed to act Reasonably in shaking off this encumbrance from them and therefore pretend they cannot believe the Divinity of that Religion which lays it on them Whereas in truth they seldom consider the Arguments recommending the Truth of any Religion least the Obligation of it also should return into their Minds Or if they cannot avoid the Thoughts of it yet their Wills struggle against their Understanding They would esteem it the greatest Unhappiness which can befal them to be thoroughly convinced of that Truth which if obeyed would deprive them of all their darling Pleasures For the Truth of what I here advance I appeal to your own Experience View all these Scepticks in Religion and see if you can find any in all your Knowledge who make any Conscience of observing moral Vertues of being Chast Temperate and Just. It is the Imposition and enforcing of these Vertues which hath made the Christian Religion grievous and distasteful to such Men not the want of Evidence of the Truth of it These Pretenders are seldom of such raised Capacities as to discern between true and false reasoning with greater accuracy than other Men or to discover the weakness of an Argument which before their Sagacious Enquiry was universally allowed They wilfully betray their Judgment or rather the Pretence of it to the depraved inclination of their Wills which that they may enjoy they are content to undergo the Ignominy of groping at Noon-day and not discovering a Truth set in so great a Light But this Consideration being more general I dismis it only reminding you how unjustly an Objection is raised by these Men from Christ's not publickly appearing after his Resurrection since if he had so done the Evidence of his Resurrection at this distance of time could have been no more than now it is Farther not only would the publick appearance of our Lord after his Resurrection have been of no advantage to us but would even have failed of convincing at least converting the Jews who should have been Spectators of it The Jews had continued their Infidelity notwithstanding so many hundred Miracles that it could not be hoped the Addition of one Miracle more should create a Belief among them They had rejected all those many undeniable Proofs which our Lord was pleased to offer to them in Testimony of his Divine Mission and after the long Experience of such a strange Perverseness it is scarce credible that the Resurrection alone should effect what all other Arguments and Proofs joyned together could not perform In the first Place the Prophesies contained in the Old Testament to the Divine Authority of which the Jews did own Submission all the Predictions and Descriptions concerning the Messias delivered in it were to them the most cogent Argument which could be offered By the Concurrence and Completion of all these Prophesies in the Person of Jesus it did so evidently appear that he was the Christ that they could not deny it without proclaiming at the same time their disbelief of those sacred Oracles And then as our Lord truly said in a not unlike Case If they would not believe Moses and the Prophets neither would they have been perswaded though one rose from the dead although himself had rose from the Grave in the sight of the whole Nation If the greatest Argument had no effect upon their Minds lesser Proofs would certainly lose their Force However because it may with some shew of Reason be alledged that however the Concurrence of the ancient Prophesies in his Person were in the Nature of things the better Argument yet that Miracles as being more surprizing and more affecting the Mind of Man were the more effectual Demonstration let us compare the Miracles of Christ wrought before his Crucifixion with the Evidence which would have been produced by his Resurrection if he had been pleased visibly to manifest it to the whole Nation of the Jews The number of Miracles which we find recorded in the Evangelists is very great and yet St. John assureth us That what is written contains but a small part of the Actions of Christ. Every one of these Miracles gave as full a Proof of that Divine Power by which they were wrought as the Resurrection could have done The Resurrection indeed is infinitely more considerable to us Christians than any other Miracle because it is the assurance of our own Resurrection the entrance of our Lord upon his state of Glory But to Unbelievers it is of no more Efficacy than the many other Miracles wrought by him What could be more admirable than that he commanded the Elements the winds and the seas and they obeyed him That he removed Infirmities and cured all manner of Diseases immediately and by a single Command What greater Proof could be offered of his own Divinity than that he did this by his own Authority without invoking the name of God or intreating his Presence If stupendious Acts were required what more wonderful than his feeding whole multitudes with a few Loaves If nothing less than the sensible Experience of his raising the Dead to Life could convince them what more notorious than the raising of Lazarus known to the whole City of Jerusalem than the raising of the Widows Son of Naim performed in Presence of the whole City attending him to his Grave than the Bodies of Saints departed arising at his Crucifixion entring into Jerusalem and appearing unto many If in all his Miracles precedent to his Death the Jews not able to deny the Fact pretended they were done by a Diabolick Power a Pretence more than once alledged in their own Talmud extant at this day and published by themselves the same Pretence would with equal Reason have been retained after his Resurrection For if the absolute disposal of Life and Death were to them the only confessed Proof of a truly Divine Power it was offered to them in raising those to Life whom I before mentioned Although by other Arguments he had given abundant Demonstration that he acted not by any Commission from infernal Spirits The whole Design of his Doctrine tended to overthrow the Power and Dominion of the Devil to root out Idolatry and Sin whereby Mankind was held Captive to the Devil to establish Truth and Piety than which nothing could be more contrary to the interest of Hell His Miracles consisted chiefly in casting out Devils from the Bodies of unhappy Persons whom they had possessed than which nothing could be more ungrateful to them in relieving the Wants and curing the Infirmities of Mankind than which nothing could be more opposite to their Practice and Inclinations who always endeavoured the Destruction but never the benefit of Mankind This same Power of working Miracles he communicated to his Disciples long before his Crucifixion which refuteth the idle Pretence of the Jews in the Talmud that his miraculous Power was a personal Quality obtained by unfolding a Spell placed of old by Solomon in the Temple All these Proofs of
his Enemies as well as Friends at that time The Soldiers sent to break his Legs while hanging on the Cross that so they might hasten his Death whom they supposed not yet to have expired found him already dead Joseph of Arimathea and the devout Women which followed him taking him down from the Cross laid him in his Grave being well assured that he was then Dead His Disciples who if any shew of Reason might be offered would not easily believe him dead from whom they then expected a temporal Kingdom yet were so far perswaded of it that at his first appearing to them they were affrighted and supposed they had seen a Spirit To these Proofs nothing more could be added to Evince the reality of his Death an Evidence which is wanting to all the Relations of Men raised from the Dead opposed by the Heathens to the Resurrection of our Lord. They alledged from Plato the Story of Eris lying for many days among the dead Bodies and after that recovering Life again and pretended that Apollonius Tyaneus whom they set up in opposition to Christ had raised a certain Person to Life But the first was not related by any for more than a thousand years after the Fact was pretended to be done and in the second Case the Heathen Historian confesseth that he dare not affirm that the Person was truly Dead Nor after his Resurrection was it less evident that Christ was truly alive invested with Soul and Body All the Actions of Life and Arguments of a real Body met in his He was seen by a great number of his Disciples who judged it to be such He eat and drank with them which proved his Body not to have been a meer Phantasm or Aerial Apparition He talked and reasoned with them out of the Scriptures which demonstrated that Body to be indued with a rational Soul He appealed to their Sense of feeling commanded them to handle him said to unbelieving Thomas reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side which manifests that the Body which he then offered to that Tryal was that very Body which had suffered on the Cross and still retained the Print of the Nails and the Impression of the Spear That this same Body and Soul reunited was also joyned to the Divinity as before his Passion appeared from his many Miracles wrought after his Resurrection Thus we have a true proper and real Resurrection And that all these things were so we have the Testimony first of his own Disciples the Faith of whom although so nearly related to him cannot be called in question since they laid down their Lives in Confirmation of it Nor can it be imagined that any Men should die for the Testimony of what they knew to be false Of these the pious Women were first Blessed with the sight of him whether it were in Reward of their maintaining their Love and Fidelity to him when his Apostles had forsaken him or that they came into the Garden where the Sepulchre was immediately after the Resurrection and before he was yet departed out of it They saw him knew him and saluted him held him by the feet and worshipt him The Apostles being advertised of it by them hasted to see their Master and received not only a transient view of him but conversed with him for forty days together and by many infallible proofs were assured of the truth of it Afterwards he appeared to more than five hundred at once and at last ascended up to Heaven in the presence of them all To the witness of Friends we will add the Testimony of his Enemies which in all Cases is allowed to be of great weight The Soldiers who were employed by the Jews to watch his Sepulchre plainly saw the Effects of Divine Power which accompanied his Resurrection although being astonished and confounded at such unusual Prodigies they did not well perceive it or perhaps were not suffered by their Fears to stay till Christ should proceed out of the Sepulchre They felt the Earthquake which removed the stone rolled to the mouth of the Sepulchre they saw the countenance of an Angel like lightning and his raiment white as snow upon which they did shake and became as dead Men and coming into the City shewed to the chief Priests all the things that were done as we read Matth. XXVIII II. The Angels and heavenly Hosts had before joyned with Men in celebrating the Nativity of Christ and they here concurred in witnessing his Resurrection The Women coming to the Sepulchre betimes in the Morning presently after the Resurrection and looking for the Body of their beloved Lord in the Sepulchre found there two Angels in white sitting one at the head the other at the feet where the Body of Jesus had lain who said to them why seek ye the dead among the living he is not here he is risen come see the place where the Lord lay Lastly If we should imagine both his Friends and Enemies the report of Sense oft-times repeated to have been deceived in the Opinion of his Resurrection God hath been pleased to confirm the Truth of it and to set his Seal to it This he hath done not only by his Holy Spirit comforting enabling and encouraging the Apostles in Preaching the Mystery of Christ's Refurrection but also in confirming their Testimony with concurrent Miracles As it is Acts IV. 33. With great power gave the Apostles witness of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus They openly affirmed it upon their own Knowledge and then in Proof of the truth of their Affirmation wrought Signs and Miracles which to the Spectators did as fully evince the Truth of the Relation as if they had seen it done with their own Eyes since it was impossible that God should exert his omnipotent Power in working Miracles for the Attestation of a Lye Thus much for the reality I proceed in the second place to the II. Manner of the Resurrection expressed in those words having loosed the pains of death which are variously interpreted some maintaining that they imply only a Deliverance from Death and rescue from the Grave others that they point out the dolorous Sufferings by which our Lord was brought to the Grave and raising him up to a state opposite to that Humiliation a third sort understanding by them a Destruction of the Power and Dominion of Death All these Opinions are supported with great Reasons nor will it here be proper to enter into a strict Examination which of them rather is to be embraced They are all rational Consonant to the Design of the Apostle and Significative of the manner of Christ's Resurrection I will therefore apply them all The first Opinion includeth only a Deliverance from Death that is a reunion of Soul and Body separated by Death In which Sense it chiefly referreth to the words of David and the Promises made to him here alledged by the Apostle David had been often brought
add that he shall return in like manner as they saw him go that is in Power and great Glory as our Lord describeth his coming to Judgment Matth. XIII 26. It will be of little use to inquire into what part of the Heavens the Body of our Lord was translated yet not unfit to observe that our Lord is said to have ascended into those Heavens by which the most glorious Presence of the Divine Majesty is in Scripture expressed Thus it is said of him Ephes. IV. 10. He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all Heavens and Hebr. VII 10. That he was higher than the Heavens and Heb. IX 12. passing into the holy place even into Heaven it self to appear before the Presence of God that is he was advanced to the same state of Glory with God the Father his Body was translated to the place of his more immediate Presence in Heaven which is fully expressed by his sitting at the right hand of God To determine the place whether in the third in the fourth or above the Heavens is rash and unwarrantable But this we may be assured that whatsoever part of Heaven is the immediate residence of the Divine Majesty whatsoever Region is most Holy whatsoever Place is of greatest Dignity in those Celestial Orbs thither Christ ascended and there now Reigns in Glory III. The Advantages which the Church and all the Members of it received from the Ascension of Christ are many and great The first and most eminent Benefit derived from it was the Mission of the Holy Ghost of which I spoke before A Benefit which was indeed more sensible in the Apostolick times when it communicated to many the gift of Tongues the power of working Miracles or a prophetick Spirit but is at this day no less advantageous since by the Influences and Operations of the Holy Ghost the Church is still maintained the Faithful are enabled to perform their Duty and the unfaithful are converted Thus the Ascension of Christ became a lasting Benefit to all his Followers procuring to them those Graces which otherwise could never have been obtained The Ascension of Elijah made one Elisha left a double Portion of his Spirit with one Disciple to be communicated to no other but the Ascension of Christ was of universal Benefit producing blessed Effects which should extend to all Believers and to all Ages A second Benefit of the Ascension of our Lord is the Confirmation of our Faith which from thence received firm Assurance of the truth of his Doctrine and the Divinity of his Person He had proclaimed to the unbelieving Jews as well as to his own Disciples in the VI. of St. John that he would ascend into Heaven What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before After his Resurrection he said unto the Women Go to my brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father It was not therefore unexpected to the Apostles they were acquainted with his Resolutions herein and when they faw effected what he had before foretold them they could no longer doubt that he was the true Messias Thus although the prophetical Office of our Lord expired upon the Cross all his subsequent Actions offered convincing Arguments to Mankind of the truth of his Mission and the certainty of those things he taught No greater Proof of either could be imagined than his Resurrection from the Dead and when to this was added his Ascension into Heaven there was no more place left for doubt Thus the Faith of the Apostles was confirmed by the Ascension of Christ but their Hopes were much more exalted By this glorious Triumph they saw him put into Possession of that ample Power which they so long wished to be assumed by him which might enable him to reward his Followers and effect those Promises which he had made to them In John XIV he had told them there were many Mansions in his Fathers house and that he went before to prepare a place for them intending to receive them afterwards to himself that where he was there they might be also The former part of the Promise they saw to be effected in his Ascension and thence conceived assured Hope that the latter would be accomplished There can be no greater Motive to believe the truth of Prophecies or Promises than to consider the performance of those which went before The same foreknowledge of our Lord which foresaw the Exaltation of himself could as easily foresee the like Reward to be given to his Followers and the same Power which advanced him to the right hand of God could exalt whomsoever he pleased into Heaven So that his Power could not be questioned and his Will therein he had often declared assuring them Joh. XII 32. When I am lifted up from the Earth I will draw all Men unto me Herein the Hopes of all Mankind received increase and strength They had all impatiently wished for Immortality it was easie to believe that their Souls should still exist but their Bodies were equally parts of themselves They were equally concerned for the future Happiness of both yet that either should be hereafter Happy they were assured only by the Revelation of Christ. He affirmed it he promised it he confirmed it by wonderful Signs and Miracles yet it could not but seem strange that Flesh and Blood should inherit the Kingdom of God that such a gross corporeal Being should be admitted to the Society of Angels that Man who was excluded from an Earthly Paradise should be taken up to the immediate Presence of God All this did seem incredible till they saw an Example of it in the Body of Christ which consisting of the same Flesh and Blood partaking of the same Nature was visibly received into Heaven and placed in eternal Happiness By this they were convinced that the like Immortality of their own Bodies was not impossible and while they considered the Promises of Christ and their own Relation to him that he was the first Fruits of humane Nature their forerunner which is entred into Heaven for them the Captain of their Salvation and the Head of their Society they were fully satisfied that it should in time be granted to them since what he foretold of his own Ascension they saw effected since it was but natural to follow their Captain their Head and their Forerunner and with him to be received into the place of their desired Happiness Farther as Christ is our King and our Priest the Benefits which we hope to receive from either of those his Offices received increase by his Ascension into Heaven As King he is thereby invested in the actual Dominion of his Church enabled to bestow upon her all those Graces and extraordinary Assistances which are necessary for her Well-being As our Priest his Intercessions with God the Father in our behalf are made much more prevalent by his personal Presence with him Under the Law the Efficacy of
the great Propitiatory Sacrifice depended upon its being presented by the High Priest in the Holy of Holies the place where God was pleased to Promise his immediate Presence How much more Efficacious then must be conceived to be the Intercession of our High Priest who not once a year but continually not with the Blood of Bulls or Goats but with his own Blood not in an Earthly Tabernacle but in the highest Heaven maketh Intercession for us If the Mediation of the Jewish High Priest could avert temporal Punishments due to the Sins of the People much more will the Mediation of our High Priest free Mankind from eternal Punishments If their Priest being cloathed with the same Nature could more sensibly commiserate the Unhappiness of his People our's for the same Purpose took our Nature on him But whereas their Priest was subject to the Guilt of the same Sins for which he interceded our's knew no Sin their 's was admitted no farther than to the Symbols of God's Presence to the Cherubims and the Mercy Seat our's to the very Throne of his Majesty where he continually pleadeth his Sufferings on our behalf diffuseth his Graces to us and prepareth Mansions for us Lastly if we consider Christ as the great exemplar of humane Life his Ascension will upon that Account also be of great use to us teaching us with him to exalt our Affections to withdraw them from the Earth and to place them in Heaven This Inference the Apostle draweth from his Resurrection and Ascension Colos. III. 1. If ye be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Christ died to the World to instruct us that we ought to mortifie our worldly Lusts to restrain and subdue to Reason the use of Carnal Pleasures He left the World and Ascended into Heaven to teach us that there our Affections ought principally to be fixed that there our chief Interest is placed and there only perfect Happiness to be expected Could the Pleasures the Power and the Prosperity of this World have given the most complete Happiness our Lord who deserved it by the most complete Obedience which was ever paid who was more dear to God than all the Sons of Men who was himself heir of all things and Lord of all would have fixed his abode here and not removed it into Heaven But when immediately after his Exaltation as soon as he began to receive the Reward of his Obedience and Sufferings he forsook the Earth and returned unto the Bosom of his Father he hath thereby instructed us that in vain is true Felicity to be sought here below that this World can afford no adequate recompence for Vertue and Piety that we are indeed but Strangers and Pilgrims upon the Earth and that as many as pursue the end of their Creation and study to be truly Happy ought to seek a better Countrey even that into which Christ the forerunner is entred for us that so where he is there we may be also receive the same Reward and be Crowned with the same Happiness that so as we have imitated his Ascension we may share in his Glory Which God of his infinite Mercy Grant The Twentieth SERMON Preach'd on July 13th 1690 At LAMBETH CHAPEL Matth. V. 16. Let your light so shine before Men that they may see your good Works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven THESE words are part of our Lord's Sermon upon the Mount which was directed to a mixed multitude of Auditors and treats altogether of universal Duties incumbent upon all who receive the Doctrine and acknowledge the Authority of him who spoke it Upon which Account we have just reason to reject the Opinion of those who would restrain to the Apostles only and their Successors the Preachers of the Gospel the Duty prescribed in this and the three foregoing Verses which requireth the Professors of Christianity not to confine the exercise of their Duty to their single Breasts or rest satisfied in having discharged the Office of Piety in secret but to perform such eminent Acts of Devotion Temperance and Charity and so to direct them as may promote the Glory of God and Instruction of Men. The whole preceding part of this Sermon was directed to all Christians in General delivering the Promise of those Beatitudes in which all the Disciples of Christ are equally concerned What follows treats concerning the general Laws of Justice Temperance and Charity so that with no good Reason can these intermediate Verses be restrained to the Apostles only If they are here called the Salt of the Earth Verse 13. our Lord addressed himself in the same words to great multitudes as we read Luk. XIV 25. If they are stiled the light of the World in the 14th Verse St Paul applieth the same Expression to the Philipians II. 15. exhorting them to be without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation shining among them as Lights in the World It must be acknowledged indeed that the Apostles were and their Successors in the ministerial Office ought to be more eminently the Salt and Light of the World purging away the Corruptions removing the darkness of Mankind by Example and Instruction To effect this by their Doctrine is peculiar to them not common to other Christians to promote it by their Example is a Duty common to them with all other Christians It is my present Purpose to treat of it as an universal Duty to which my Text directs me by placing the Light of this Exemplariness which is commanded not in verbal Instructions but in good Works which are acknowledged to be the Duty of all Christians Of this then I will Discourse under these four Heads I. The Duty imposed such an exemplary Conduct as may become a Light of the World II. The manner of being thus Exemplary by good Works III. The end to which it ought to be directed the Glory of God IV. The good Effects of it the Instruction of Men and Promotion of the same good Works in others I. Concerning the Duty which is that of an illustrious Example to the practice of which our Lord hath directed us both by his Laws and by his own Example He stiles himself and truly was the Light of the World he was foretold under the Figure of the Sun of righteousness who should enlighten the World with his Doctrines and demonstrate the Possibility of performing them by his own Example His Precepts chiefly concern Moral Duties which he restored first to their Primitive Notions and Purity and then urged the Practice of them upon his Followers in a more strict manner than had ever before been done What before was esteemed an attempt fit only for great and noble Minds he made the Duty of all the Members of Mankind what others thought a sufficient Glory to practise singly to excell in this or that single Vertue he required to be performed conjunctly without the Omission of any thing which is
the brightness of the Sun the Example of wise and holy Men to the fixed Stars which however far inferior to the Glory of the Sun yet are seated in Heaven and communicate to the Earth a Light never to be extinguished and that at a great distance The nearer we approach to these luminous Bodies the greater Light we shall receive from them The Examples of holy Men while alive are so many shining and burning Lights in their several Generations and even after their Deaths will derive exceeding influence to succeeding Ages so long as the Memory of their eminent Piety and good Works shall be continued Those excellent Graces wherewith they were endued those noble Testimonies of Vertue and Holiness which they gave tended no less to the benefit of the whole Church and the instruction of other Christians than to their own Salvation and if they be not equally beneficial to us at this distance of time it is because we either take no Care to obtain the knowledge of them or suffer the remembrance of them to slip out of our Minds It is undeniable indeed that in this present Age and among us especially the Memory of these things is almost lost which is not the least cause of the prevailing wickedness of the Age and present Examples of equal Lustre are very rare or indeed scarce any yet for all that those Holy Persons cease not to retain their glorious Seat in Heaven and there as the Prophet saith To shine as the brightness of the Firmament as the fixed Stars always maintain their Stations and preserve their Light altho' at any time not seen by us To this glorious Station in Heaven our Lord hath promised to advance all those who by extraordinary Piety and the eminent Exercise of good Works shall endeavour not only to save their own Souls but also to Profit the Church in general and to promote the Salvation of any other in particular May the hope of this glorious Reward excite every one of you to the performance of this Duty of Exemplariness And may God of his infinite Mercy accept and Crown your Endeavours for the sake and Merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to whom c. The One and Twentieth SERMON Preach'd on Decemb. 25th 1690. At LAMBETH CHAPEL Luk. II. 14. Glory to God in the highest and on Earth Peace Good-will towards Men WHAT the Patriarchs saw afar off and desired what the Prophets foretold and just Men in all preceding Ages did assuredly expect the Manifestation of God in the Flesh and the Salvation of Mankind to be wrought thereby did this Day receive its Final accomplishment by the Birth of our Lord and Saviour the Commemoration of which is the occasion of this present Solemnity Nor can we more fitly commemorate it than by this admirable Hymn which the Angels and heavenly Host upon this occasion sang before us and the Church hath in all Ages since retained in her most Sacred Offices Glory be to God in the highest and on Earth Peace Good-will towards Men. This Hymn seems to have been a part of the publick Service of the Jews and to have been employed by them to express and celebrate the most illustrious Instances of the Divine Goodness to them For we find Acclamations very like to it in several places of Scripture and particularly upon the triumphant Entry of Christ into Jerusalem The Jews being perswaded that their long-looked for Messias was now come and all the temporal Advantages which they fancied would attend his Coming cryed out Peace in Heaven and Glory in the Highest But surely upon no occasion was it ever so justly used as by the Angels upon this Day in which the Divine Glory did so eminently shine forth and the eternal Happiness of Mankind did commence For from the Angels we receive this Hymn and are taught to sing it by their Example which is related in the Verse preceding the Text And suddenly there was with the Angels a multitude of the heavenly Host praising God and saying c. One Angel declared to the Shepherds the glad Tidings of great joy which should be to all People the Birth of Christ but the whole Quire of Angels the Host of Heaven joyned to sing Praise to God and celebrate those Benefits which were that day derived down upon all Mankind Themselves received not like Benefits to Men from the Incarnation of the Son of God yet returned Glory to God for it The Reasons of which it may not be amiss to lay down before I proceed to consider the parts of this Hymn singly First then the Angels were moved to give Thanks to God by the increase of the Divine Glory among Men which they foresaw would be consequent to this Incarnation Their Office is to attend continually before the Throne of God and sing Praises without Intermission to him so that every new increase of the Divine Glory inflames their Zeal in this Holy Office The primary Reasons indeed of that Glory and Praise which they continually yield to God are eternal being drawn from his immutable Attributes of supreme Power Wisdom Goodness and Majesty Yet every illustrious Manifestation of any of these glorious Attributes by external Effects becometh also the Subject of their Praise Thus in in Revel IV. 8. we find the Angels celebrating the eternal Attributes of God in that Hymn Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come And in many other places celebrating the Effects of these Attributes as Rev. XV. 3. Great and marvellous are thy Works Lord God Almighty and XIX 7. Let us be glad and rejoyce and give Honour to him for the marriage of the Lamb is come Nay as it should seem by comparing the several forms of Doxology to be found in the Book of Revelations the Angels since the Manifestation of the Mystery of God incarnate have in a manner changed the Subject of their Doxologies and confined themselves almost wholly to the Contemplation of this Mystery and the glorious Effects of it For in the beginning of that Book while the secrets of Heaven are still supposed to be Sealed up the wonderful Effects of this Mystery not yet to be fully disclosed all their Doxologies insist upon the general Attributes of the Divine Nature But after the full Declaration and Completion of those glorious Events and Effects of this Mystery which are there described the Argument of the heavenly Hymns is altered and imployed in the celebrating the Victories of the Lamb the overthrow of Satan and the Happiness of the Kingdom of the Messias That is so eminent and admirable is the Mystery of this Day so much conducing to the Divine Glory that since the Completion of it it is become the chief Subject of the Contemplation of those Holy Spirits who hereby best of all discern and are enabled to celebrate that Power Wisdom and Goodness which they before admired in God Farther the Angels celebrated the Birth of Christ as rejoycing at the
brightness shall the Moon give Light unto thee but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting Light and thy God the Glory And as the Effect of all this IX 2. The people which sate in darkness saw great Light and to them which sate in the region and shadow of death Light is sprung up Which Prophecy St. Matthew observeth to have been exactly fulfilled by our Saviour in the IV. 16. of his Gospel After so many Magnificent Prophesies concerning the extraordinary Light to be brought into the World by the Messias we cannot but raise our Apprehensions and expect somewhat more than humane Knowledge to be communicated by him to the World somewhat more than humane Light to be dispensed by him Nor shall we be deceived in our Expectations the Light communicated by our Lord to the World is so universal in the extent so resplendent in the Nature so constant in the Duration of it that it in no ways falls short of those Glorious Predictions which went before concerning it and justly gives to our Lord the Author and Conveyer of it the Title of the Light of the World This will appear evidently if we consider either I. The Doctrine Or II. The Example of Christ Upon both which Accounts he was the Light of the World I. Then the Doctrine of Christ gave Light unto the World by removing the Errors of it and teaching it the Rules of Truth which might point out the way to Happiness To conceive the better the happy Effects of the Doctrines of Christ let us take a view of the state of the World at that time and we shall find as in the beginning Darkness to have over-spread the face of the Earth A very small part of Mankind enjoyed the benefit of Revelation and even they had corrupted and almost effaced the Divine Truths revealed to them by false Glosses and gross Interpretations they had forsaken the weightier Matters of the Law and even those who were most Conscientious among them busied themselves wholly in observing such trivial Ceremonies as themselves had for the most part formed by mistaken Interpretations But the infinitely greater part of Mankind lived as without God in the Word They had intirely lost those revealed Notions which were delivered to their Fore-fathers immediately after the Deluge and the natural Notions of Religion they had so far corrupted that their Worship was downright Impiety and all their religious Actions so many gross Superstitions In the far greater part of the World all Notions of Morality and a Natural Law were intirely lost and it was a brutish Fear only which kept up any sort of Religion among them Which after all was such a Religion as was their greatest Crime being no other than a most stupid Idolatry In the more polite part of the World which retained Civility and pretended to Letters the natural Law indeed was kept up among the more Learned of them but even by them so mistaken and corrupted that they allowed as lawful the Practice of some enormous Vices which to convince of unlawfulness needed no more than to consult the common Reason of Mankind as Fornication Sodomy practising the idolatrous Worship of the Country although at the same time convinced of the Folly of it Self-murder and many other Vices which the most refined of their Philosophers defended to be lawful As for the common People their Notions of God were such as the publick Religion of the Country infused into them the most vile and unworthy of a Deity which can be imagined such as patronized all the Crimes they could commit provided they violated not the Laws of their Country For by these Corruptions no Notion of Morality was left among them nor any other distinction of Good and Evil than what the Laws of their Country imprinted in them They could not but imagine that such Actions were good in their own Nature which their chief Gods had practised altho' their inconvenience to the publick had caused them to be forbidden In a word conceive a People ignorant both of God and their own Nature desirous of Happiness but knowing not where to find it and pursuing methods directly contrary to it groping in Darkness without the least ray of Light and such was the state of the World at that time To rescue the World from this miserable Darkness to restore Light to the minds of Men was a noble undertaking and worthy the Son of God an undertaking which as it could be performed by none but the Son of God so was it most happily effected by him He saith of himself that he came a Light into the World that whosoever believeth on him should not abide in darkness John XII 46. His Design was to deliver us from the power of darkness as the Apostle assures us Coloss. I. 13. A Design first begun by himself in Person and afterwards carried on by the Apostles and their Successors to this day by his Command and through his Power whom he sent as St. Paul describes his Commission Acts XXVI 18. To open the eyes of the Gentiles or the ignorant and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God Himself while conversant on Earth busied himself in nothing more than in detecting the false Explications of the Moral part of the Jewish Law which was of equal Obligation to all Mankind in discovering the Corruptions of it and restoring it to its Primitive Integrity And not content only to discover the Errors of the World as it was commonly objected to the Heathen Philosophers that they could easily overthrow the Opinions of one another but could establish no Truth in the room of them he plainly revealed their whole Duty to them taught them even the Principles of the Moral Law that so Men might no more be subject to mistake in it To this he added the Revelation of the whole Will of God which concerns either the Rewards or Punishments annexed to this Law which might reinforce the Practice of it or the future Felicity of Man to be obtained by the Observation of it or the means of Pardon in Case of the Violation of it Nor was this Light to be confined to a Corner to be appropriated to a few it was to be made truly the Light of the World to be communicated to all to be continued to the end of the World The easiness and simplicity of it adapted to the Capacity and Practice of all Men fitted it for such an universal Communicaon And that it should be actually communicated he abundantly provided by proclaiming it himself to all while on Earth by establishing a numerous Order of Disciples who should propagate it successively to the end of the World by inspiring Holy Writers to commit it plainly and intirely to writing by founding a Church the Members of which should by certain solemn Rites or Sacraments oblige themselves to the Practice of it by contriving the Discipline and Government of this Church in such a manner as might
Mankind by a studious Communication of the Knowledge of it For this Purpose it was at first acted in the Cities in the solemn Feasts and in the publick Places of Judea not in a Desert or in a Cell not spent in a solitary Retirement or known to few And after that the History of it was by the wise Direction of the Holy Spirit committed to Writing whereby the knowledge of it might be conveyed to all Ages and Nations and that Light which first arose and shone in a small Corner of the World might be diffused through the Universe and become a general and eternal Standard of Duty to all Mankind The Second thing proposed to be spoken to were the Benefits which this Light should conferr upon the World by the Communication of it Which our Lord expresseth in the latter part of the Verse He that followeth me walketh not in darkness but shall have the Light of Life And this is but a natural Consequence for if the Light which Christ communicated to the World by his Doctrine and Example were so illustrious as we before described it was impossible that any Man who obtained the Knowledge of the one or imitated the other should still continue in Darkness in the same Ignorance and Error in which he was before involved He had thereby his Mistakes removed the measure of his Duty ascertained to him and the Knowledge of saving Truth conveyed to him which was the thing our Lord chiefly intended in these Words where he speaks of the Perfection of all necessary Knowledge of Divine Matters which he would communicate to those who should put themselves under his Discipline But then there is another easie and practical Sense of the words which may be of more use to us Light and Darkness in Scripture do most frequently signifie those two contrary States of Life which ought to be led by the Professors of the Gospel which enjoyed the Benefit of this revealed Light and which was wont to be led by those who formerly lived or still continued in the Darkness of Gentilism Hence in the New Testament the Disciples of the Christian Religion are often called the Children of light and that State of Sin and Error from which they were converted expressed by Darkness as Ephes. V. 8. Ye were sometimes darkness but now are ye light walk as the Children of light and in many other places And all Sin is called the work of Darkness as Rom. XIII 12. Let us cast off the works of Darkness and Ephes. V. 11. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of Darkness Our Lord therefore in this place teacheth us that his true Disciples they who followed the Conduct of his Light walked in the right way cast off the works of Darkness and were directed into and followed the path which leadeth unto Life Many Sins to which they were before subject were the effect of their Ignorance occasioned by the Darkness of their Mind They knew them not to be Sins Their Judgment which is the natural Light of Man could not direct the Will aright or betrayed it to a wrong Choice even when it was disposed aright and as Reason Wills resolved to follow the Direction of the Judgmeâ—t A miserable State indeed when Men were willing to perform their Duty and knew it not The unhappiness of which our Lord fitly describeth Matth. VI. 23. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness if thy Judgment be corrupted with Error or Ignorance of thy Duty how great is that darkness From this unhappiness our Saviour fully freed his Disciples by teaching them all necessary Truth by informing their Judgment by setting their Duty in a full Light whereby if they would use any ordinary Diligence they could not mistake in the Knowledge and Practice of it Further these works of Darknses even among the Gentiles much less among Christians proceeded not always from the defect of Judgment from the Ignorance of Duty but more ordinarily from the Corruption of the Will were acted against the Dictates of Conscience and known to be Sins while acted Yet fitly called the works of Darkness because as our Lord told Nicodemus John III. 20. Every one that doth evil hateth the Light neither cometh to the Light least his deeds should be reproved There is a natural Detestation of Sin when known to be such in all Men which maketh the most profligate Men desire their Sins may be concealed from the knowledge of others not considering perhaps as they seldom give themselves time to consider that they cannot escape the knowledge of God This Corruption of the Will which occasions such works of Darkness Christ hath also provided for and removed by proposing such Arguments of Reward and Punishment as if seriously reflected on cannot fail to perswade by rectifying the Judgment and thereby influencing the Will For besides the external Arguments of our Obligation to God and our own Interest concerned in it every part of our Duty when rightly understood carrieth internal and powerful Arguments of Perswasion with it Further this Sentence of Christ may be of use to us to the discovering the true Followers of Christ and to the making a right Estimate of our own as well as others Relation to Christ. For as he that followeth this Light cannot walk in Darkness so it is impossible that he who walketh in Darkness should follow this Light It was formerly the Condemnation of the Jews that Light came into the World and Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil They retained their Infidelity and rejected the Doctrine of Christ because contrary to their beloved Lusts and Vices And it is now the Condemnation of as many Christians that professing to follow the Light they still walk in Darkness that in the midst of all that Knowledge which by Christianity is conferred to them they practise the same Vices which the Gentiles and Infidels were guilty of betrayed to them by their Ignorance and Blindness who nevertheless call themselves the Sons of Light pretend to be the Disciples of the Author of it and to have a near Relation to him Of such St. John hath pronounced 1 John I. 6. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth And indeed if the Light of Heaven was not intended only to gaze upon and please the Eyes of Men if much less the Light of the Soul the Doctrine and Truth revealed by Christ was not intended merely to promote the Speculations and gratifie the Fancies of Men if a rational and vertuous Conduct of Life be the natural Effect of a sound Judgment and accurate Knowledge of Duty and the Arguments enforcing it it is but a natural Consequence that this Light wheresoever it is found should exert and discover it self in Actions conformable to it But it is absurd to pretend that Light hath there any influence where the works of Darkness are performed or that two such Contraries
whether your Conscience doth not instruct you that many things you ought to do others to omit and whether if you refuse to follow the Direction of it it doth not upbraid to you the Omission or Violation of your Duty If then all the momentous Duties of the Christian Religion be required by the Light of Nature if what our Lord exacteth of us be no more than what Reason would have prescribed to us if no Revelation had intervened surely the Obligation laid upon us by Christianity is a Burden very easie to be born For hence it will follow that to execute the Office of a Christian is no more than to perform the Duty of a Man that it is but natural to Practise all the Precepts of it and that a contrary Conduct is a force of Nature Now that whatsoever is natural to any Being is most easie to be effected by it is no more than what common Sense will teach us For in being such it is most adapted and proportioned to the Faculties of that Being to which it is natural This Argument will receive a farther Illustration from that sweet Complacency of Mind which is inseparable from all good Actions and which doth infinitely alleviate the Burden and compensate the Difficulty of it This our Lord seems to have had a particular regard to in the Text when affirming his Yoke to be easie he useth a word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the Original more properly denoteth Sweet and Pleasant What greater Argument then can be conceived either of the Eaâ—iness of the Duties of Christianity or of their Agreeableness to humane Nature than that a grateful Complacency always attends them while the Soul congratulates to her self the performance of her Duty the Conquests of adverse Lusts and the right use of her own Faculties No Joy can be conceiv'd more intense than this none more Serene and undisturbed because none more Spiritual or founded upon better Reasons The truth of this every good Man can confirm by his own Experience Nor do even bad Men want the same Conviction For none almost are found so totally corrupted who do not sometimes Practise good Actions And then I appeal to themselves whether they receive not an inward Satisfaction from the Conscience of it And if any Degree of Complacency be found in them who through disuse are wont little to relish or value spiritual Pleasure what infinite Satisfaction must good Men reap from thence who by a well fixed Determination have perswaded themselves that the Exercise of Christian Vertues is the only means of present Happiness and will hereafter procure yet more noble Enjoyments On the contrary all vicious Actions are attended with a no less constant Dissatisfaction and regret of Mind raised by the Dictates of Nature only For who can be impious or disobedient to God and not conceive Indignation at his own Ingratitude Who ever reflected upon any inordinate Lust committed by him and did not afterwards vex himself that he had no more command of his Passions and could not over-come a foolish Desire Who ever yielded to Drunkenness and did not at the return of his Wits conclude that he had done a thing unworthy of himself Thus in all other Sins Reason doth not fail to upbraid to Man that he perverted the Design of his Nature degraded his Soul and dishonoured himself This Remorse alone without the Fear of future Punishments made known by Revelation brings far more Affliction to the Mind of Man than the Enjoyment of any Sin brings Pleasure to it These expire in a moment those continue as long as the use of Reason remains which altho' it may be suspended by violent Lusts for a while yet will certainly break out with greater force and torment the Mind with inward Shame Anxiety and Distrust Upon the whole a vertuous Life is most agreeable most easie and most advantageous to the Nature of Man even abstracting from the Obligation superadded by Revelation and the Reward promised by it So that our Lord in making the moral Vertues the only practical Duties of his Religion and the Exercises of them to be the Conditions of his proposed Reward hath imposed a most easie and most desireable Yoke upon Mankind A Second Reason of the Easiness of the Christian Yoke is the Greatness and the certainty of the Reward annexed to it Which Reason more particularly rendereth easie that most arduous Duty of Christianity the Patient enduring of Persecution Affliction and even Death it self in the defence of it and is to that Purpose imploy'd by St. Paul 2 Cor. IV. 17. For our light Affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory Facility and Difficulty are relative Notions and are to be measured by the Proportion which the worth of the end to be obtained beareth to the Labour and hazard which are to be employed in the Acquisition of it If an eminent advantage may be obtained by a proportionable Industry we allow it to be an easie Condition When therefore the greatest Happiness which our Nature is capable of is proposed to us upon Condition of such a right use of our Free-will as is in our Power the Imposition ought to be esteemed an easie Burden when it procureth to us such an infinite Reward And not only doth the Excellency of the Reward take off the Imputation of severity from Christ's imposing so strict and universal Holiness upon us but is also an effectual Motive to us of Vigilance and Industry in the Execution of the Condition required of us In all other Actions of Life our Endeavours are wont to be more or less vigorous as the desire of the end we aim at is more or less intense The Fervency of the Desire is always proportionable to our Esteem of the Excellency of the end That we may therefore conceive an earnest Desire of this noble End and be thereby incited to use a suitable Diligence for the Attainment of it it is necessary that we form to our selves a right Estimate of the Greatness and Worth of it by reflecting on the infinite Duration the inconceivable Pleasures and immutable State of it by comparing it with all the trifling Enjoyments of this Life and raising the Thoughts to an Expectation of somewhat yet greater than can be now conceived This will carry the Soul of Man through all the Difficulties of a Christian Life baffle the Temptations of the World surmount the Fears of Death or temporal Affliction much more effectually than the desire of Glory the Ambition of a Crown or the Prosecution of some violent Passion hath engag'd many in the most desperate Undertakings For in these latter Cases the Acquisition of the end was never ascertained to the Undertakers in the beginning of their Design The most vigorous Industry and Courage was in them subject to the Chance of Fortune Whereas in the former Case there is an inseparable Conjunction between the end and the means between
another hath injured us and are not we in every Sin injurious to God Thy Fellow-Servant hath perhaps injured thee once or twice but thou hast injured God the Lord of both very often perhaps every day of thy Life and then what equality is there between injuring a Fellow-Servant and a Master He perhaps was provoked nay first injured by thee before he committed any Acts of Hatred or Malice against thee But thou hast offended thy Lord from whom thou never receivedst any Injuries by whom thou hast been obliged with the greatest Benefits by whose Favour thou livest and from whom thou expectest all that can make thee Happy Consider that if God should examine strictly and immediately revenge all thy Offences against him thou hast not one day to live For if thou Lord shouldst be extreme to mark what is done amiss O Lord who may abide it So said a better Man than thou art and much more must thou confess if thou either dissemblest not with others or deceivest not thy self For to pass by all those secret Sins which are known only to every Man's Conscience and have no witness but God alone if we should be required to give an account of those open and manifest ones which we daily commit what Pardon could we expect If God should take a severe Account of our Negligence and want of attention in Prayer of all the idle Speeches proceeding from our Mouth and the rash Judgments which we make and such other Sins and Inadvertencies committed but in any one day we should have just Reason to despair of Pardon But if he ransacks our Souls and brings forth into Judgment all the secret Sins of it the evil Desires and unclean Thoughts the unlawful Motions and vain Imaginations we should then have no hope left And if the Sins of one day bring inevitable Destruction upon us without the Mercy and the Pardon of God what an Abyss of Mercy will the Sins of a whole Life require Yet all these Sins he condescends to pardon all this Mercy he extends to Man with this single Condition that he pardon the Offences of his Fellow-Christian For this is an Argument against Revenge peculiar to the Christian Religion To the Jews the Promises of Divine Pardon were neither so full nor so clear and therefore God in giving Laws to them thought it convenient to wink at their exercise of Revenge in some Cases I will not reckon as such that Law of giving an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth For however it was afterwards most grosly mis-interpreted by the Jews it included not any thing of Revenge in the first Institution and Design of it But certainly that Law cannot be excused from Revenge which alloweth to the Kindred of any Man slain unadvisedly to retaliate his Death upon the Author of it if they overtook him before he entred into any City of refuge It is our Happiness that as we have a better Religion and greater Promises so we have stronger Arguments to perswade us to our Duty And in this Case he who gave us both hath forbidden the Execution of Revenge to us and appropriated it to himself So that not only upon account of the Nature of the thing but also of the Divine Command Revenge is made injurious to God and unlawful to us Further not only do we want that Authority which Revenge pre-supposeth not only are we precluded by the express Prohibition of God but we also want other qualifications absolutely necessary to us before it be convenient that we be intrusted with the Execution of Revenge I will instance but in two First Knowledge of the true Guilt of the Crime which we would revenge It must be acknowledged that the Merits of a Cause ought to be known before any Judgment be passed on it In Humane Judicatures the Peace of the World and Interest of publick Societies require that probable Evidence be accepted that Judgment be given according to the appearance of things But if Men pretend to judge the Consciences of others to define the Hainousness of the Guilt of their Offences and to execute the Punishment upon it which is the Proper work of Revenge they ought exactly to know the most private thoughts of the Soul by what steps and arguments the Will was induced to commit that Injury what Judgment the Understanding formed of it when it was committed Otherwise Men may grosly mistake they may Judge that to be an Injury which was intended by the other for a Kindness in which Case there is rather Merit than Guilt in the Offender And if his intended Benefit doth really turn to the Detriment of the other it will be a misfortune to them both yet the Merit of the Benefit ought not to be esteemed less Thus a passionate Revenge may be employed against its own Benefactors and inverting the Course of Justice punish the Well-doers In other Cases Men may interpret Acts of inadvertency to proceed from a formed Malice and punish what is indeed but a venial Injury as a Mortal offence They may prosecute the Execution of revenge even after the other hath repented of the Injury in his mind and resolved if possible to make Reparation for it and thereby hath expiated the guilt of the Offence In all these and many other Cases Men may err most grosly in passing their Judgment upon the enormity of Injuries offered to them which must be supposed to precede all Revenge And how dangerous such Errors are our Lord acquaints us when he assureth us Matth. VII 2. With what Judgment ye judge ye shall be judged and with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again This Reason makes it impossible for Man to execute Revenge aright if it should be permitted to him and dangerous to be desired and for this Reason it ought to be taken out of the hands of Man and be committed to him alone who is the Searcher of all Spirits Again if it were possible for Man to form a right Judgment of the guilt of every Offence and the quantity of the Punishment to be inflicted he would still commit fatal Miscarriages in the Execution of it His Passions are so violent that he would far exceed the Limits of the prescribed Punishment add weight and sharpness to it in Complyance with his own Hatred and imagine that his Anger ought to be indulged therein Nay I fear that in all Cases of Revenge it will be found that the Punishment is inflicted not out of abhorrence to the sin committed but out of Malice and Hatred to the Person of the other not to reform the irregularity of the other but to gratifie his own Passion not to oppose sin but to harm a supposed Enemy And thus not only the Danger of incurring the guilt of Injustice Hatred and Malice would ensue but also the Peace of the World would be wholly over-turned Mankind would be involved in continual War while he who were first injured carried his Revenge beyond the
least it cannot be denied that the assurance of God in the latter part of the Text Vengeance is mine I will repay hath taken from them that common pretence before mentioned of Zeal for the satisfaction of Justice least if Revenge should not be inflicted the Guilt of any sin should escape unpunished This therefore God hath fully provided for who as he is the supreme Lord of all and Judge of the whole World cannot be supposed to fall so far in the Distribution of Justice as to permit any sin to pass unobserved by him neither expiated by Repentance nor attended with Punishment and hath moreover obliged himself by Promise to revenge the Injuries offered to his faithful Servants and that as our Lord saith he will do although he bears long with them Luk. XVIII 25. It would be unreasonable to expect that his Punishments should always be inflicted on the unjust Aggressor in this Life nor hath he promised any such thing The place in Deuteronomy referred to in the Text in the Original runs thus To me belongeth Vengeance or Recompence in time or to be executed in due time It cannot be expected that his Punishments should always immediately follow the Commission of every Crime or Injury unless we desire the World should be in a manner dispeopled and become a Theatre of dreadful Tragedies It is sufficient that he hath ordinarily secured us from the more disquieting Injuries of unjust Men by the Commission which he hath given to the Civil Magistrate to revenge them in his stead And if he should fail in the Execution of his entrusted Office we are not so considerable as singly to deserve an extraordinary Interposition of Providence in behalf of us If we desire this Revenge should be extended yet farther and should punish in this Life and for our Sakes even the Guilt of Injuries offered to us we manifest an inhumane Disposition of Mind delighting in the Miseries of other Men. God hath promised indeed as a benefit to his faithful Servants that he will revenge the Injuries offered to them But if this Revenge be taken in this Life the benefit consisteth not in the Pleasure arising from the suffering of Enemies but either in the Enjoyment of temporal Peace secured thereby or in the perswasion which good Men may thence conceive that they are beloved by God If the Revenge be taken in another Life the benefit consisteth wholly in the latter For far be it from the Spirits of good Men now in Heaven who were injured by bad Men when alive to take delight in the Torments of the Damned because they were once their Enemies and far be it from us to enhance the Joys of Heaven by such unworthy Considerations Complacency in the Sufferings of other Men which is to be found in all Revenge properly so called can find no place in Heaven and that it may find no place on Barth may this Discourse conduce The Fourteenth SERMON Preach'd on Easter-Day 1690. At LAMBETH CHAPEL Acts XI 24. Whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it HOW Glorious the Resurrection of our Lord was which we this day Commemorate how undeniable at that time how powerful an assurance of all his precedent Promises and Revelations what effect it had both in the Mind of his Disciples and his Crucifiers how effectually it demonstrated to the whole World the Divinity both of his Mission and his Person as the whole Series of their Actions immediately subsequent to it do demonstrate so this Declaration made by them in the Text doth evince They who before had fled upon his apprehension had lost all their hopes at his Crucifixion had either denied or forsaken him who began to doubt whether it were he that should have redeemed Israel and gave up all for lost resumed their Courage and their Faith at the news and assurance of his Resurrection They now saw that Salvation wrought which before they had even ceased to hope for The most incredulous of them could now say to him My Lord and my God nor did they henceforward admit any doubt of those glorious Promises of which they had herein received so great a Testimony They feared not to profess their belief in him openly to Arraign the Impiety of the Jews in Crucifying an innocent Person and him no other than their own Messias the Lord of Life to denounce to them the certainty of their Destruction without belief in him not only to testifie his Resurrection in that great Concourse of the Jews met together at the Feast of Pentecost but also to declare it impossible that he should not have risen again as in these words Whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it which present us with I. The Affirmation of the Resurrection of Christ. Whom God hath raised up II. The manner of it Having loosed the pains of death III. The Reason of it Because it was not possible c. 1. The words assure us of the Truth of Christ's Resurrection a Truth both well known to the Apostles who did then relate it and attested by many infallible proofs as it is in the foregoing Chapter Verse 3. so that it could not be denied by those who should only hear it Let us take a view of these Proofs both for the Confirmation of our Faith and to amplifie the Glory of that Mystery to the Memory of which this day is Sacred In relating then the Resurrection of our Lord the Holy Penmen have been very exact in relating all the Circumstances and the Proofs of it manifesting that he was really dead after his Crucifixion and as truly alive again after his Resurrection that this was known to his Enemies as well as his Disciples and attested from Heaven by the Ministry of Angels and by God himself In a matter of so great Concern it was necessary that all the Points of it should be clearly proved and none remain liable to the least Exception In the first place it was required that assurance should be given of his having been really dead An Article which is fully expressed in the Creed the common Profession of our Faith wherein we declare him to have been dead and buried and to have descended into Hell that his Soul was truly separated from his Body the places being therein assigned wherein each were contained from the time of his Burial to that of his Resurrection His Body remained in the Grave His Soul was in the state of other separated Souls in Hell whether we understand thereby either the ordinary Condition of departed Souls or the place of damned Souls I will not now engage in that Controversie it is sufficient to say That either Opinion placeth his Soul in that interval of time among other Souls separated from the Body That the Soul of Christ was thus truly separated appeareth from the concurrent Judgment of
before mentioned that is unless we rise from Sin to die again Lastly the Justice of God and the incomparable Humility and Patience of Christ manifested in his Sufferings rendred it not possible not fit that he should be holden of Death He died not for his own but for the Sins of others and to demonstrate that his own Guilt drew not that Punishment upon him it was agreeable to the Justice of God to raise him up to relieve the Cause of oppressed Innocence and not suffer his Persecutors any longer to triumph in their wickedness Further by his exact Obedience by his inimitable Patience in suffering the Pains and his admirable Humility in undergoing the Shame of the Cross he did deserve to be raised up that as he had humbled himself in so extraordinary a manner so he should be exalted to a no less illustrious Glory And therefore the Sufferings and Humility of Christ are frequently assigned as the meritorious Cause of his Exaltation It was long before Prophesied of him Psal. CX 7. He shall drink of the brook in the way therefore shall he lift up his head And after his Passion and Ascension it is said of him by St. Paul Philip. II. He humbled himself and became obedient to death even the deash of the Cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him The first step of his Exaltation was his Resurrection which therefore was to relate to both those parts of his Humane Nature which had undergone that meritorious Humiliation Not only his Soul had suffered Agonies and the Contradiction of sinners had resigned it self intirely into the hands of God and submitted quietly to the Execution of that bitter Sentence which was inflicted on him as the Representative of sinful Men had endured the Shame of the Cross the insults of his Enemies a violent Separation from the Body with invincible Patience and Charity But also his Body had partaken in his Agony had sweat drops of Blood had endured Scourgings and Buffettings Crucifixion and the wound of the Spear Both Soul and Body therefore were to share in the Reward of all these Sufferings which began to be bestowed on him in his Resurrection His Body was to be raised from the Grave and his Soul being in no other Sense capable of Resurrection was to be reunited to the Body and both to continue for ever joyned since by his Death and Resurrection he is become the Mediator of a new and eternal Covenant Thus I have passed through the several parts of the Text and from the whole I shall make but one Inference proper to the Solemnity of this day If the Resurrection of Christ be the great and ultimate Confirmation of the Christian Religion that upon which our Faith is founded our hopes are raised that by which the Mystery of our Redemption is compleated the Author of it Crowned and advanced to be the Head of all the faithful who look for the same Resurrection it becomes us to celebrate this Festival Dedicated to the Memory of it with a suitable Religion We are not to account it an Arbitrary institution or the invention of the Church that this day is accounted Sacred beyond all others of the Year Our Lord hath made it so by rising from the Dead and compleating the Redemption of Mankind on it No revealed Religion was yet ever professed in the World which did not celebrate some certain and solemn Festivals at fixed times of the year and to cast off the publick Solemnization of those Festivals upon which the most illustrious Acts of the Life of our Saviour were performed is no other than in Fact to deny all belief in him and relation to him It is not enough to say that he hath declared he will be worshipped in Spirit and Truth He was himself then going up to Jerusalem to celebrate a solemn Festival when he spake those words And surely unless there be solemn times and places of worshipping him in Spirit and Truth it will never appear that he is so worshipped nor is he worshipped in Truth when Men pay no external Acknowledgments of those eminent Benefits which he hath truly obtained to them Himself hath consecrated this day by his rising from the Grave on it The Apostles have Dedicated it to this sacred Use by their own and by Divine Authority The Jews had before celebrated one day in seven in Recognition of their adoring that God who had created the World in Six days and rested on the Seventh and that Seventh day which they celebrated rather than any other of the Week was sanctified in Memory of their Deliverance out of Egypt wrought upon that day as it is Deut. V. 15. Remember that thou wast a Servant in the Land of Egypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence by a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day As the Jews therefore dated their Seventh day for ever from that day of their Deliverance out of Egypt so the Apostles began and the Church hath to this day continued to date their Seventh day from the day upon which their Redemption was compleated A Redemption so far greater than that given to the Jews from the Bondage of Egypt that well might the day instituted in remembrance of their Deliverance give way to the day celebrated in Honour of our Redemption This change therefore was made by the Apostles immediately upon the Resurrection of our Lord and even before his Ascension and so no doubt by his personal Direction and Approbation For all the religious Assemblies we find of them both before and after his Ascension were upon the first day of the Week That so as the Jews acknowledged their belief in God the Creator of the World by celebrating one day in seven and manifested their Worship of that God who brought them out of Egypt by Solemnizing for ever that Seventh day in which he brought them out So we Christians should declare that we worship the same God the Creator of the World by celebrating one day in seven and also manifest that we worship him in and through Jesus Christ by Sanctifying for ever that Seventh day upon which the great and last Act of our Redemption wrought by him was performed which is therefore in Scripture called the Lords Day Rev. I. 10. Farther as the particular Day of the weekly Festival of the Jews was determined by their Deliverance out of Egypt wrought upon the Seventh day so the far greatest of their Annual Solemnities was instituted in Commemoration of that Deliverance effected in the first Month of the year This God did institute by a special Command which was at large repeated to you in the first Lesson of this day And exacted the Observation of it with so great Rigour that he declared That Soul which did not keep this annual Feast should be cut off from Israel And can we imagine that God should require such eminent external Testimonies
of Gratitude from the Jews for Deliverance from a temporal corporeal Bondage and leave us without any Obligation of rendring publick and solemn Honour to him for freeing us from a spiritual and eternal Slavery The Redemption wrought by Christ is to us what the Deliverance out of Egypt was to the Jews The Feast of Easter instituted in the remembrance of the Completion of that Redemption is to us what the Feast of the Passover was to them appointed in Memory of their Deliverance Christ is our Passover as we heard this Morning from 1 Cor. V. Let us therefore keep the Feast The Determination of our Christian Festivals is to be taken from the most illustrious Actions of Christ our Redeemer and when they are determined they are to be celebrated with no less Religion than were the Festivals of the Jews nay rather with greater Expressions of Joy Gratitude and Devotion because they Commemorate far greater Benefits That this Festival therefore was particularly instituted by the Apostles those words of St. Paul do not obscurely intimate but the Practice of the universal Church immediately after their times do most evidently manifest it Scarce was St. John the last Liver of the Apostles Dead when the Eastern and Western Churches began to divide about the time of Solemnizing Easter not whether it should be solemnized but whether it should be a fixed or a moveable Feast both contending for their own Custom as for an essential Point of Religon in that indeed straining a Circumstance too far but clearly proving thereby that the solemn Observation of Easter was then by all Christians accounted an essential Institution of Religion in that they esteemed it unlawful to vary the least Circumstance formerly received in the Observation of it And as this Festival hath succeeded instead of the Jewish Passover which did prefigure the whole Mystery of our Redemption so the due manner of our Celebration of it was typified by the Ceremonies prescribed by God to them in eating the Paschal Lamb. As they were commanded to remove all Leaven out of their Houses so we are to put away the Leaven of Malice and Wickedness in the words of St. Paul As they then sung Hymns of Thanksgiving to God for their Deliverance out of Egypt so we ought to give Praise and Glory to God for consummating our Redemption by the Resurrection of our Lord upon this day As they eat the Paschal Lamb with bitter Herbs in a Habit and Posture expressing their readiness to go out of Egypt with great Testimonies of rejoycing and mutual Kindness So we should receive the Elements of Bread and Wine representing the Sacrifice of Christ the Lamb of God once offered upon the Cross for the sins of the whole World which is the chief and most solemn Act of our Worship to be paid upon this day with a bitter Repentance and Sorrow for past sins with a stedfast reliance upon the Promises of God with a perfect Submission to his Will and readiness to go wherever he shall lead us with a sincere Charity towards one another and to all the Members of Mankind for whom Christ died that is for all Men without Exception and with the most intense Thanksgiving that our Souls can form for all the Benefits of our Redemption but more particularly for raising to Life as upon this day him who died for our sins and rose again for our Justification So by worthily Celebrating here on Earth the Memory of the glorious Resurrection of our Lord we shall obtain to be hereafter admitted to follow the Example of his Resurrection and share in the Glory which he now enjoys in Heaven Which God of his infinite Mercy grant for the sake of him who died and rose again our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to whom with the Father c. The Fifteenth SERMON Preach'd on April 5th 1690. At LAMBETH CHAPEL 1 Tim. II. 8. I will therefore that Men pray every where lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting PRAYER being one of the greatest Duties of a Christian Life that whereby we chiefly pay our Adoration to God whereby we obtain the Remission of our Sins and the Relief of our Necessities to which so many Promises are annexed and so frequent Exhortation to the Practice of it to be found in Scripture we ought to be well instructed in the Nature the Necessity and the Conditions of it To effect this was the chief Intention of the Apostle in this whole Chapter in which this Verse being more comprehensive than the rest I have chosen it for the Subject of my intended Discourse of Prayer In it the words easily direct me to insist on these Four Heads I. The Duty of Prayer I will that Men pray II. The Place of it Every where III. The posture of Prayer Lifting up their hands IV. The Conditions required to make it acceptable and effectual Lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting I. The Duty of Prayer is expresly commanded in the first words I will c. To inforce the Authority of which Command the Apostle saith in the former Verse that he was ordained a Preacher an Apostle and Teacher of the Gentiles acted herein by Divine Commission And surely it was no light Matter when the Apostle whose Authority was long since received in all the Churches founded by him thought fit to produce his Commission before he imposed the Command a Command not first introduced by him but often repeated by our Lord himself who taught his Disciples a Form of Prayer and injoyned them to watch and pray But since none as I suppose will dispute the Command or deny the Authority of it it will be of more advantage to shew the reasonableness and the use of Prayer Which I proceed to do First then Prayer is the principal Act of Adoration paid by Man to God and upon that account becomes necessary to us Man being the Creature of God at first produced out of nothing by his Almighty Power and afterward all his Life long depending on his Providence and maintained by him oweth to God all that Service which he is capable to pay and that is no other than to adore his Majesty to acknowledge his Power to celebrate his Praises to admire his infinite Perfections in all things to own his dependence on him to profess himself the Creature the Servant the Subject of God and to behave himself as such This is all which Man can pay to God for those infinite Benefits which he hath received from him God hath no Interests of his own to be promoted by us The Infinity of his Nature hath set him beyond all want of external Aids and even beyond all increase of Happiness even that Glory which he receiveth from our Worship is of no advantage to him yet is it not the less required of us since it declares our Conviction of that Gratitude Subjection and Obedience which are due to his Benefits and his Power that Honour Worship and Reverence which belong
Divine Power our Lord had exercised among the Jews for three years together and that not in private in a corner among his own Followers but in all the great Cities of that Nation in the Presence of multitudes in their Streets and Synagogues before the Scribes and Pharisees the most Learned and discerning Men among them in the solemn Festivals and Concourse of the Jews at Jerusalem where every Male was bound to appear three times a year before the Lord and where Christ never failed to be present and to declare his Mission by Miracles and by Oral teaching So that it is not improbable but that every Male of Judea arrived to Man's Estate had at the time of his Death personally seen some Miracle wrought by him Even at his Death such manifest Indications of his Divinity appeared that an unprejudiced Heathen the Roman Centurion who guarded his Cross could not forbear to confess that he was the Son of God that is in the Language of the Heathens a Divine Person Yet notwithstanding all these Proofs and Miracles it was found that the Jews retained their Infidelity that far from being converted by them even while the Sense of them remained they did affront and revile him accused him of Combination with the Devil even while they saw him cast out Devils and were scandalized at his Doctrine even before they had digested the Bread wherewith he had miraculously fed them as we read Joh. VI. What then could be concluded from this whole Carriage of the Jews but that they were a People whom no Arguments could perswade no Miracles could affect who deserved no farther to be regarded by God and who would have treated the visible Resurrection of Christ with no less Contempt than they had done his former Miracles It is at first sight somewhat incredible indeed that Man endued with a rational Soul could possibly so far deprave his Reason as to withstand such powerful Arguments and deny the Truth set in so clear a Light And some have not failed hereupon to object to the whole History of the Life of Christ that it is impossible he should have wrought so many Miracles since had he done it it cannot be conceived that the Jews should disbelieve him and deny Assent to his Revelations But alas who can account for the Perverseness of the Will of Man or the Failures of his Understanding A little reflection upon our own Experience of humane Life will convince us how gross and to us unaccountable Errors many Men commit How often a Matter which seems most clear and evident to us when proposed to others cannot or will not be understood by them To recurr to more particular Examples this very Nation of the Jews continued stubborn incredulous and rebellious amidst all the Miracles which Moses wrought in the sight of them They murmured against him even while they subsisted by his miraculous Ministry and notwithstanding all the wonderful Benefits and Punishments of God daily visible to them for Forty years together often renounced their Allegiance to the true God Nor are they the former Ages only which have committed such prodigious Mistakes even in our own Age we have no less eminent Instances of unaccountable Corruption of understanding in some Men which because they are ordinary and common we cease to wonder at but in Truth had the Ancients by Revelation foreseen them they would have no less admired the Folly of subsequent Ages than we now do the Errors of precedent times To name only one now among many who could have then believed that in the latter times of the World there should exist a large Society of Men who should pretend to eat their God to devour his Body ten thousand times and yet retain it whole to divide it into as many parts every one of which should be equal to the whole and infinite other like Absurdities And yet this we know the Papists do Upon the whole it ought not to be concluded that because such a Perverseness of Will or Corruption of Judgment cannot be well conceived by us or seems incredible to us judging according to the Nature of the things themselves that therefore it is impossible Mankind should be ever Guilty of them For it doth appear that there is no Error so gross no Miscarriage so enormous which Man may not commit And that if the Jews had seen and handled the Body of Christ after his Resurrection it is more than possible that they who had rejected so many antecedent Proofs would have been insensible of this also but it is most certain that they were not worthy to whom such a Favour should be granted It remains That I speak to the third and last Consideration that notwithstanding our Lord vouchsafed not to the unbelieving World the visible Presence of his Body after his Resurrection yet that he hath by other Methods offered to Mankind sufficient Arguments of reasonable Conviction of the truth of it This was absolutely necessary not only in Relation of the rest of the World who had not seen his precedent Miracles but also in regard of his undertaking to the unbelieving Jews whom demanding a Sign from him he had referred to his Resurrection from the Dead after three days continuance in the Grave And this he hath effectually performed by the Testimony of unexceptionable Witnesses his Apostles and other Discliples who as they were well assured of the Truth of it themselves so they were fitted and enabled to testifie it to the World beyond all Contradiction They had seen and Familiarly conversed with their Lord after his Resurrection handled his Body clearly perceiv'd that a rational Soul was united to it and the Divinity to both as before his Resurrection They were afterwards enabled to testifie this to all Nations of the World by the gift of Tongues and to do it successfully by the Power of working Miracles not only conferred upon themselves but upon whomsoever they laid their hands for that Purpose They confirmed the Truth of their Testimony by voluntary laying down their Lives by undergoing all the Hardships of Life the Persecution of the Jews and the Contradiction of Heathen Philosophers all which none can be supposed to have been done without an inward Conviction of the Truth of what they Preached And if they were indeed so convinced it is impossible that in forming their Judgment of it they should have been mistaken Or if it can be imagined that any should be so Vain-glorious as to forego the Pleasures of Life and suffer a Death in defence of what they knew to be false yet are we not in this Case permitted to believe it by Reason of the many and wonderful Miracles wrought by them by the various Operations of the Holy Ghost working in them and communicated by them by which God himself gave a concurrent Testimony to the Resurrection of Christ preached by them and set to his Seal that what they taught and affirmed was true But of this Head I need add no
sharpened in Consideration of the unhappy influence which their Actions had to dispose othen Men to sin The Duty of Exemplariness and the excellent Design of our Lord in requiring it of his Followers being thus cleared I pass to the Second Head to consider the manner which he hath fixed whereby to raise this Example that is by good Works Let your Light so shine before Men that they may see your good Works None but these will have any influence upon the Minds of those who are without the Church or who judge rightly and none but these will avail such as are within the Church or make little use of their Judgment To become a light and a glorious Example in the World it is necessary to be eminent in those Actions which are acknowledged by the World to be good excellent and of intrinsick worth Such are all Actions of Moral Vertues but more especially such as are positive as Justice Truth Zeal for the Honour of God Kindness and Charity to Men. Such are in many places of the New Testament and in common Speech also called good Works which whosoever doth illustriously perform all other Men although of a different or no Religion will bear him Witness that the Lawgiver whose Precepts he therein obeyeth is good and just that his Example deserveth Praise and Imitation And what Effect must we not believe this Example had upon the Jews and Heathens before the brightness of it was obscured by the prevailing wickedness of latter Ages when the Church could challenge her Adversaries to produce from among her Followers an unclean or an injust an intemperate or a prophane Person when their Piety was so undeniable in the constant frequenting of the publick Prayers and Sacraments of the Church even in the midst of Persecutions when their Charity appeared so conspicuous not only in relation to their own Members but now even to their Enemies in feeding the Hungry in clothing the naked in redeeming Captives in communicating to all When an Heathen Governour and he the most Learned Man of his Age employed by his Emperor to examine the Doctrine and Conduct of the Christians made this report to him That they were a sort of men who injured no Man defrauded none abstained from Murder Lust and Perjury gave frequent Demonstrations of admirable Charity and meeting once every Week in the publick Service of God bound themselves by religious Ties and Sacraments to do all this When a Learned Adversary after a full Search could make no other report than this what remained but to conclude that God was indeed among them So wisely Christianity contrived to draw in unbelieving but unprejudiced Spectators by the Beauty of its Example the force of which none could withstand while its greatest Adversaries dared not to deny that the Exercise of good Works was the Primitive Religion of the World and if not the Duty yet at least the Interest and the Ornament of Mankind Our Lord proposed not to form this Example by extreme Austerities and Macerations by Paradoxes in Doctrine or Practice by Raptures or Extasies which might easily raise the Amazement but not the Reverence of other Men. Judicious Men would esteem them Follies if proposed as matters of intrinsick Excellence and entertain them with Scorn and even ignorant Persons might be astonished at them yet could they never discover any real worth in them or the Reason of them It is the unhappiness of latter Ages to have introduced such gross Conceptions instead of what our Lord directed the Practice of good Works and thereby have in a great measure defeated those excellent Ends which he intended Thus the Church of Rome in her latter Saints hath chiefly respected extravagant Austerities and the Report of foolish Miracles and some others have made the Indications or Signs of Saint-ship to be unaccountable Raptures or internal pretended Consolations or union to God and Christ which have no necessary external Effect or cannot be discovered by unbelievers or if discovered would not affect them With them no Example but of such Actions as are universally allowed to be Excellent namely of good Works will be of any Power and therefore our most wise Saviour hath appointed no other and if this be not continued all other means of continuing the Glory of this Light which our Lord proposed will be found wholly ineffectual And as to those without so also to those within the Church but needing the Direction of Example no other will be of any advantage The benefit in relation to them consists in leading the way to such who are inclined to imitate the Actions of those whom they admire or respect or to whom they are subject which Actions if they be such as are here required good Works the Design of our Lord is happily effected the Duty of such Persons promoted their Salvation secured the Reward of those who give the Example increased But if the Actions be of any other Nature they are either unlawful or indifferent not worthy Imitation and without any Promise of reward In the third Place our Lord in the Text proposeth the end towards which these exemplary good Works should be directed which is that others may see them and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven that is in seeing them may glorifie God Least Men should be betrayed into Pride or Arrogance through an Opinion of their own good Works they are commanded to refer all not to their own but to the Divine Glory Least they should swell with the Conceit of being a Light to the World of giving a Rule to the Actions of other Men by their own Conduct they are taught that all this ought not to be employed to promote their own Esteem in the World but to advance the Honour and Worship of God While good Works are indeed directed to this end it is impossible that any thing of Pride should intervene And if notwithstanding peevish and morose Men will detract from them as done for sinister Ends and vain Glory our Lord hath provided for this a Remedy in the 11th Verse of this Chapter immediately preceding this Exhortation to a good Example Blessed are you when Men shall revile you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake Nothing indeed is more odious and distasteful than Ostentation in Religion or more to be avoided This raised the Indignation of our Lord against the Pharisees and still exciteth the Scorn of all judicious Men when Acts of Religion are formed on purpose to be seen by Men when their Praise and Applause is thereby courted and studiously contrived But in this Duty of being exemplary in good Works as there is no Command of contriving the ordinary performance of them in such a manner as may be most taken notice of by other Men so there is for the most part no necessity of it in Order to their being observed by them Many of them are of such a Nature as cannot but be observed whether he who performs
them intends it or not they cannot be concealed or pass unregarded Upon which account Christ justly resembleth them to a City placed on a Hill and to a Candle set on a Candlestick in the 14th and 15th Verses which naturally appear and give Light to all round about them as if he should say Do but you take care to perform good Works and the very Nature of them will cause them to become Exemplar I do not require you to publish and Blazon them abroad nor is there any need of it For if they be indeed performed they cannot escape the Knowledge and Observation of other Men. Farther not only the Nature of good Works maketh the Ostentation of them to be unnecessary in order to become Exemplar but also they carry with them less Temptation to Pride and Arrogance than any other Acts either of true or supposed Religion If the grounds and more ordinary Reasons of Pride and Self-conceit in Religion be searched it will be found that they are wont to be grounded in the more easie and commonly in mistaken Points of Religion As of old among the Pharisees in the punctual performance of Washings and other Ritual Observations among the more Ignorant of the Church of Rome at this day in Pilgrimages Beads and other Trifles among their Saints in extraordinary Austerities or unusual Acts of Self-denial among Enthusiasts in Raptures and pretended Inspirations All these naturally tend to foment the Pride and Self-conceit of Men they draw the Eyes of others on them and serve to make unwary People believe them extremely Conscientious and have this farther advantage towards the Design of Hypocrites that they are cheaply performed cross no Passion restrain no Lust make a great shew and cost them nothing And when they are performed not affording any inward Satisfaction of Mind as having no internal worth it is but natural for the Actors of them to seek that Satisfaction from the Praises and Applause of other Men which they reaped not from the Reflections of their own Conscience Whereas the performance of good Works raiseth in the Soul of Man so sweet a Complacency when reflected on that external Commendations can add nothing considerable to the internal Satisfaction of the Mind and will be neglected when compared with it To which I may add that the Exercise of many good Works and most signally the greatest of them that of Charity towards the Poor do naturally dispose to Humility accustoming the Mind to consider and compassionate the Wants and Infirmities of inferior Persons and condescend to the relief of their Condition It being most certain that Pride or an over-valuing of their own Dignity is in some Men the Cause of uncharitableness as well as the love of Riches betraying them to imagine it beneath their Quality to take into their Consideration the necessities of distressed Persons and to be aggrieved for them Which sort of Pride cannot consist with real Charity and where this is to be found the former can have no place At least it is most certain that Hypocrisie may consist with all those mistaken Indications of Holiness I before mentioned but with good Works with Mercy Justice Truth and Charity it is impossible it should consist For that whosoever performeth these doth really perform what he pretends to do that is satisfieth the Obligation of the Religion which he professeth However although ordinarily it be not necessary so to direct the performance of good Works that they may not escape the Knowledge of Men and it be always unlawful to direct them in that manner for this end alone to obtain the Praise of Men Yet in some extraordinary Cases it is not only lawful to perform them publickly with this Design that they may be seen of others not to obtain their Praise but to promote the Honour and Glory of God but it is also highly acceptable to God and serviceable to his Church This is warranted by the express words of our Lord in the Text which require his Disciples to cause their Light so to shine before Men that they may see their good Works and glorifie God If this Design doth at last terminate in the Honour of God and be so intended it is not only warrantable but recommendable by God and will be certainly rewarded by him Only great Caution is to be used in the Management of it and a scrupulous Care to be observed least any thing of vain Glory any sinister End should intervene and is to be put in Practise only in Cases of exceeding moment Such are when any Age or large Society of Men are especially deficient in any Duty In which Case it is a laudable and noble Undertaking for any private Persons to give the greatest and most publick Lustre to their performance of that Duty that so if it be possible by their eminen Example therein they may retrieve the publick Practice of it and whensoever any great and common Good altho' of another Nature may be attained or promoted thereby Such was the Case more particularly of the Apostles who were sent to preach Faith and Repentance among Jews and Heathens generally devoid not only of Faith but of all Moral Vertues For this Reason it was necessary that those noble Acts of Charity which they exercised in healing the Sick and restoring the use of their Limbs and Senses to those who before wanted them should be performed publickly that themselves should decline no opportunity of manifesting the Excellency of the Christian Religion and the deep Impression of it upon their own Minds For this Cause also St. Paul was not ashamed to relate at large and to Glory in the many Afflictions Hazards and Persecutions which he had undergone for the Testimony of Christ because the amplifying of his Labour and Patience tended to the spiritual Good of the Corinthians to whom it is directed and consequently promoted the Honour of God This Design also justified the Bravery of those ancient Christians who voluntarily and unsought for delivered up themselves into the hands of their Persecutors when they observed a general Cowardize and frequent Examples of Apostacy among other Christians who were apprehended and brought before the Heathen Tribunals that so by their Courage and Constancy they might excite others to persist resolutely in the Profession of their Faith It must be acknowledged that simply to throw themselves into Danger to expose themselves to the Fury of their Persecutors was unlawful Our Lord in Matth. X. 23. had commanded his Disciples When they should be persecuted in one City to fly into another And the Doctrine and Discipline of the ancient Church had forbidden the ordinary Practice of such rash Undertakings Yet whensoever so great a Good might be attained thereby as to raise the dejected Courage of other Christians and to assert the Honour of Christ against the Heathens boasting in the subversion of many weaker Christians it was not only lawful to engage in voluntary Martyrdom but highly meritorious and rewarded as such by
Salvation of Men which was to be procured thereby Those excellent Spirits are inclined by their own Goodness and Benignity to wish well to their Fellow-creatures to be concerned at their welfare and rejoyce in it Especially for those who are endued if not with equal yet with like Reason who possess Souls of the same spiritual Nature and alike immortal By these if by any means the number of the heavenly Host formerly diminished by the fall of Lucifer and his Associates was to be repaired All which would not permit them to be unconcerned in the Felicity of Mankind and that although the Divine Dispoposition had not obliged them to have a peculiar regard of it But when by the Order of God They are all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation as we read Hebr. I. 14. there was abundant Reason for this their Exultation since without the Incarnation of Christ their Labour had been wholly vain and the condition of Man not capable of relief But after they saw this at once made both possible and easie in a Rapture of Joy they broke forth into this Hymn of Praise For if there be joy among the Angels of Heaven over one Sinner that repenteth and is saved How much more when the whole Mass of Mankind was redeemed and made capable of Salvation Even the Angels themselves altho' not in the same Degree with Mankind received signal Benefits from the Manifestation of this Mystery And therefore had reason to rejoyce upon the Completion of it Their Happiness consists in contemplating and praising the Nature the Attributes and the Effects of God Their knowledge of all these things is Finite as is their Nature and therefore every addition of Knowledge is an encrease of Happiness and the Manifestation of this great Mystery of Heaven was the greatest Benefit which in their State they could receive Of the Mysteries of the Gospel St. Peter saith 1 Pet. I. 12. that the Angels desired to look into them and that before this they were ignorant of it appears from those words of Christ Matth. XXIV 36. But of that day and hour knoweth no Man no not the Angels of Heaven but my Father only When therefore the Son of God took Flesh upon him and thereby began to complete the wonderful Mystery of Man's Salvation Then clearly appeared to these Blessed Spirits what was before obscure to them the Reasons of the Divine Conduct in relation to Man in all preceding Ages the Mysterious Secrets of his Providence the Signification of Prophesies which went before the purport of the Divine Decrees concerning the future State of other rational Beings This new Knowledge administred to them fresh Reasons of admiring the Goodness and the Wisdom of God and thereby increased their Happiness Thus we find the Angels moved by great Reasons to joyn in the Solemnity of this Day But why they chose to do it audibly so as to be heard of the Shepherds as St. Luke relateth we are still to enquire That Angel which was peculiarly designed to this Office had newly finished his Message of the Birth of Christ and that Happiness which would thence ensue to all Mankind when immediately a multitude of the heavenly Host was present with him and sang this Hymn This without doubt was to convince those who heard it and others who should know by their Relation of the Greatness and importance of the Message of the Excellency of the Benefits to be derived to the World from the Incarnation of Christ of the Dignity of his Person whose Birth was celebrated by the whole Host of Heaven that he could be no other than the Son of God on whom the Angels so attended We find not that the entrance of any Prophet was ushered in by the Ministry of Angels On the other side we read not of the immediate Presence of God on Earth as on Mount Sina to Moses on Mount Horeb to Elias but it was still attended with some other visible Sign as in both those places by extraordinary Commotions in the Air which also represented the severity of the old Law And in this Mystery of the Incarnation of our Lord by which God descended upon Earth was made Flesh and dwelt among us we find it foretold by one Angel proclaimed by another and celebrated 〈◊〉 the whole Host of Heaven This declared his Majesty and was an evident Proof of the Divinity if not of his Person yet at least of his Mission Now least we should imagine our selves unconcerned in the Reasons of the Angels praising God upon this occasion and make no use of what hath been hitherto said I will shew that all those Reasons which might induce the Angels to break forth into this Hymn of Praise are common to Men and ought to be much more perswasive to them If the Angels were affected with the increase of Divine Glory wrought hereby And are not we obliged to magnifie the glorious Attributes of God and the several Emanations of them both as we are his Creatures and as we are endued with rational Souls If the Angels so far rejoyced in the Benefit and Salvation of others how much doth it become us to be thankful who reap the advantage upon whom the Benefit is bestowed If the Angels were glad to see the Salvation of Mankind accomplished much more surely should Men esteem themselves obliged who enjoy it So that upon all Accounts if the Angels had Reason Men have much more to celebrate the Incarnation of Christ with this Hymn Glory to God in the Highest and on Earth Peace Good-will towards Men. I will consider the several parts of this Hymn singly And first Glory to God in the Highest which is not so much a desire of what hath not as an Approbation of what hath happened towards the Exaltation of the Divine Glory The addition of in the Highest signifieth either in Heaven and so is opposed to what followeth Peace on Earth being a Completion of those Prophesies of Isaiah sing O Heaven and rejoyce O Earth for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob c. or more naturally it is 〈◊〉 rendred Glory to God in the higheâ—â—â—â—gree in which Sense this Phrase is â—ost frequently understood in Scripture as in Psal. XCIII 4. where the same Phrase is used in the Septuagint The Lord is mighty in the Highest that is mighty above all And surely with great Reason we are directed to give the highest Glory to God which can be conceived by reason of the Incarnation of his Son wherein the Perfection of his eternal Attributes is more conspicuous than in any other effect whatsoever and from whence he received the greatest Glory which was ever paid by Mankind to God To pursue this in particular Considerations The Love of God towards Mankind did never appear so eminently as in the completion of this Mystery Truly did St. John say 1 Joh. IV. 9. In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent
all the Signs and Tokens which God had given to Mankind to discover his Power thereby in the Accomplishment of this Mystery are come to pass But not only is it just and reasonable that from the Consideration of the Incarnation of Christ Glory should be given to God but also this effect hath actually been produced and greater Glory hath thence ensued than from all other Causes whatsoever I will not insist upon the Praise which the ancient Patriarchs Prophets and good Men gave to God when they foresaw this Incarnation altho' it all ought to be resolved into this Cause I will only alledge the increase of Divine Glory subsequent to the Birth of Christ And do that by comparing the State of the World at that time with that which followed to it Before this Sun of Righteousness arose an universal darkness had overspread the face of the Earth The worship of Idols and Devils had in every place prevailed The true God so far from being honoured that he was not so much as known No Praises Honour or Glory given to him but his Laws violated without Remorse his Authority not acknowledged and his Benefits wholly forgot Indeed the small Country of Judea is to be excepted altho' that was now possessed by a Pagan Government and was shortly to be wholly destroyed by them And even of this small part of Mankind an inconsiderable Proportion maintained their Obedience to God entire Their Teachers had made void the Commandments of God by their Traditions the most Sacred Offices of their Religion were slighted and publickly set to Sale and what remained of true Piety just then expiring Consider now the State of the World in after times We find this Darkness dispelled this impiety removed Armies of Saints Martyrs and devout Persons who should for ever continue to sing that Hymn to God which the Host of Heaven began upon this day The knowledge of the true God was introduced in all parts of the World vast numbers of Persons professing the Worship of him converted in a few Years their number daily increased until after three hundred Years the whole civilized World did in a manner embrace the Christian Faith and joyn in offering up Praise to God in magnifying his glorious Attributes in confessing his Authority in adoring his Majesty in obeying his Laws if not in reality yet at least in Profession These blessed Times indeed were not for ever to continue it was foretold That in the latter times Men and that the greatest number should depart from the true Faith walking after their own Lusts. And the effect of this Prophesie the Church hath now for many Ages lamented Yet after all the publick Worship of the true God is still kept up if not in the greater yet in the more understanding part of the World vast numbers of devout Persons yet remain continual Praise is daily offered up to God and all this is owing to the happy Incarnation of our Lord as upon this day And to acknowledge this and give Glory to God for it we are this day met together and so are all other true Members of the Catholick Church in their several places The second Branch of the Angelick Hymn in the Text is Peace on Earth By Peace according to the usual Expression of the Jews we may well understand all manner of Happiness of which Mankind is capable to be inferred yet in considering it I shall confine my self to the strict Acception of it This day then were signally accomplished the ancient Prophesies concerning the peaceable Times of the Messias Now was God reconciled to Mankind and those Reasons founded upon which Men should for ever be reconciled one to another This was the greatest Benefit which Men could possibly receive to be restored to the favour of their Creator and the Love of one another God could receive no other from the Incarnation of his Son but the increase of Glory and Man no greater than the Gift of Peace justly therefore after Glory to God in the highest the Angels subjoyn Peace on Earth Peace in the first Sense as it is Reconciliation to God was foretold by Isaias of the times of the Messias LVII 19. And that to be granted to all Men who should accept the Condition of it Peace Peace to him that is far off and to him that is near saith the Lord and I will heal them This Reconciliation was actually begun in the Incarnation of our Lord and finally compleated by his Preaching and Suffering here on Earth upon which Account he is called the Prince of Peace And we are said Rom. V. 1. To have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Before Men had by their Sins proclaimed themselves Enemies to God and more eminently by putting themselves under the Dominion of the grand Enemy of God the Devil and the protection of evil Spirits which was notoriously done among the Heathens Christ by taking our Flesh upon him and doing and suffering what afterwards he did brought a great part of Mankind to the acknowledgment and subjection of the true God and having done so offering up his Life as a Ransom for their Sins obtained of his Father to be reconciled to them In the Second Sense Peace upon Earth signifieth the mutual Peace of Men. This also was foretold by the Prophets concerning the times of the Messias particularly by Isaiah in XI and LX. Chapters under the Representation of that peaceable Temper which should then be visible even in Beasts of Prey It cannot be denied that the Principles of Christianity do strangely incline Men to the Observation of this excellent temper of Mind that if the Precepts of our Lord were indeed universally regarded Hatred Malice and Revenge would necessarily vanish out of the World And if Experience doth not justifie this it is to be ascribed to the Perverseness of Men not to the defect of the Christian Laws Our Lord reconciled all Men to God yet so as that he left several Conditions to be performed by Man in order to it which if he neglects he will receive no benefit by the Incarnation of Christ and be punished as an Enemy of God In like manner Christ hath settled Peace on Earth yet not forced the Will of Men to observe it but hath given such Rules and Precepts as if observed cannot but produce an universal Peace And so the ancient Prophesies are to be understood not of the effect but of the Tendency of the Religion of the Messias altho' it cannot be denied that in a great measure they actually were accomplished and to have taken place wherever the true Spirit of Christianity was retained Our Lord was born in the most warlike Empire that ever the World saw which in more than seven hundred Years had enjoyed no more than two years Peace Yet at the time of his Birth the Wisdom of God directed that an universal Peace should then obtain as well to typifie the Peaceableness of his Doctrine and Gospel as to facilitate
the Propagation of it Afterwards for several Ages the peaceable Principles of the Gospel seldom wanted their effect in private Christians And even wrought so far in publick Societies professing Christianity that for more than five hundred years after Christ it is certain that Christians never warred against others of the same Communion Nor is the blessed Effect of it wholly expired in these degenerate times Witness that great number of Christians which still frequent the Holy Sacrament of whom it is charitably be to supposed that none presumes to approach this holy Table without an entire Resolution of forgiving Injuries and maintaining Peace with all Men. The last part of the Angels Doxology is Good-will towards Men Which expresseth much more than Reconciliation of God to Man implying no less than his favour and kindness to them using the very same word in the Original which God did of his Son when he said of him This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased The Incarnation of Christ and therein the Assumption of the humane to the Divine Nature so far propitiated God in regard to Men that he not only forgave their Sins and was reconciled to them but also admitted them to his Favour made them capable of even preter-natural Happiness even of enjoying himself in Heaven Insomuch that he who had once thro' abhorrence of their Sins repented himself that he had made them and resolved that his Spirit should not always strive with them did now adopt them for the Darlings of his Creation and as the Original word in the Text implieth even took Pleasure in them vouchsafed to Honour theirs by joyning it to the Divine Nature in the Person of his Son and therein raised it to a degree even above that of Angels not only admitting them to that Pardon of past Sins which was never vouchsafed to the Angels but also sending the Prince of Angels and the Lord of Glory to take human Flesh upon him who afterwards ascending with it into Heaven should thereby consecrate the whole Mass of Mankind of which his Body was the first Fruits and thereby make it capable of the same Glory And surely no greater Argument of the Good will of God towards Men or of his delight in Mankind could be desired than to raise them to the Society of himself in Heaven This was the Effect of the delight which he testified to take in his beloved Son the utmost Reward of his obedience that he advanced his Human Nature to his own right hand in Heaven for his Divine Nature was placed there from all Ages and for his Sake admitted all those who should imitate his Life and Obedience to the same Glory The possession of Heaven wherewith the Human Body of Christ is now invested is an Argument that our Nature is capable of it and an Earnest that we shall in due time be raised to the same Honour For Christ our forerunner is entred into Heaven for us Yet are we not left without other visible Pledges of the same hope more particularly this blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ wherein is lively represented the Truth of his Human Nature and our relation to it The Bread declares his Body the Wine his Blood the breaking of the Bread the Mortality of his Body the pouring out of the Wine the shedding of his Blood to purchase Redemption for Mankind The Distribution of both to every Communicant manifests that they are peculiarly concerned in all this that they are Members of the Mystical Body of Christ and by receiving his Figurative Body are assured of obtaining in due time the same Happiness with his true Body now in Heaven By these Figures of his true Body we openly profess our Belief of his Incarnation that he really took Human Flesh upon him for our Sakes and not only in appearance as was the vain Imagination of ancient Hereticks for that cannot be so much as represented which is not real We acknowledge his Divine Nature at the same time by that Adoration both of Mind and Body which ought to accompany this religious Action We profess our Belief that he came in the fulness of time and that in time all the ancient Prophesies were fullfilled in that we celebrate the very time of his Coming as the Intention and the Offices of this Festival directs Lastly We secure to our selves the Benefits of this wonderful Mystery if we do all this with sincere Faith Repentance and Charity So shall we give occasion to the Holy Angels to renew their Hymn to sing Glory to God who is honoured by this Devotion and Thankfulness of his Servants Peace on Earth wherein Men are hereby reconciled to God and to each other and Good-will towards Men who are hereby admitted to the Favour of God and will be hereafter to the Fruition of him Which God of his infinite Mercy Grant FINIS
light and example to the unbelieving World and in so doing performeth the Duty prescribed in this place and entituleth himself to the Reward of it Whereas every one deviating from this Rule and violating the Laws of Christ concerning moral or religious Actions becometh a Spot in this light an Exception to the Plea of the Church against Unbelievers He defeateth one of the chief Advantages which Christ proposed to produce in founding of a Church and thereby becomes Guilty not only of the miscarriage of his own Soul but also of the miscarriage of all those Infidels or prophane Persons who miscarried for want of discovering that Exemplariness in the Church which was to have convinced them If the Institution of Christ herein be in these latter Ages in a great measure defeated and no such frequent or sincere Effects of Conversion be to be found it may well be resolved into this Cause that by the disobedience and vicious Lives of the greater number of the Members of the Church this once glorious Light is well nigh covered with Spots and almost turned into Darkness This Luminary of the Church never indeed was without Spots even in its greatest Vigour and Purity in the beginning of the Gospel but while the number of them was inconsiderable in Comparison of those who performed their Duty the Diminution of Light which arose from thence was scarce discernible In succeeding times as the number of wicked Christians increased the Light proportionably diminished until our days wherein the State of the first times of Christianity is so far inverted that the number of pious Christians is very small in respect of the others and thereby the Light of the Church is almost extinguished Whosoever then addeth to this remaining Light by his own single Piety doth the greater Service and whoever detracts from it by his ill Example doth the greater Mischief because every Addition and Diminution is more sensible in a less than a greater quantity of Light Thus all Christians may become Exemplar in conspiring to complete the Example of the Church to those who are without it For not every one is fitted in particular and singly to make himself an Example to other Men. Many things must concur to that which oftimes are not in the Power of Man The minds of other Men on whom his Example must be supposed to have any influence must be first possessed with an opinion of his Wisdom or Authority or any other Quality which may induce others to follow his Example And where such Qualities are found the Obligation of being Exemplar becomes much more strict In that Case he is not only to Act in common as a Member of the Church but in particular also as a Director of all those who may be influenced by his Example Such are Parents to their Children Masters to their Servants great Men to their Inferiors Kings to their Subjects wise and learned Men to those who have an Opinion of their Wisdom and Learning All such are as Lights to those subjected to them whose Eyes are fixed on them and are wont to form Directions to themselves from their Practice And this is what God particularly requires of great and knowing Men in return for their Power and Wisdom that they employ it for the Instruction or Perswasion of others in the discharge of their Duties their Power and their Knowledge hath distinguished them from the rest of Men and set them in an eminent Station at least in respect of those who are subjected or inferior to them and therefore every Action of them hath some influence but ordinarily every Habit fixeth even a Rule to the Conduct of Inferiors of whom the most part look no farther than to the demeanour of those whom they suppose in Power or Knowledge to excel themselves If they observe no Rules of Order and Decency these cannot so much as know them If they practise forbidden Pleasures or give way to unlawful Passions these will lose even all Sense of the unlawfulness of them They will not be ashamed to practise what they see their Superiors the supposed Judges of Decency and Lawfulness without fear to pursue If they conscientiously observe the Precepts of Religion even respect to their Persons will engage others in the same Course of Piety as being generally perswaded that those who are greater and wiser than themselves are more enabled to discover the means of attaining true Happiness Thus every good Man fitted by the Opinion of others concerning him for being an Example to them becomes a publick Blessing He enters not into Heaven alone but carrieth with him the welcome Attendance of those whom his Example hath drawn thither with him It is not indeed in the Power of all Men to fit themselves for such Exemplars yet most Men are concerned in this as being Superior to some others who are ready to take Rules of Direction from them and not a few are placed in such eminent Stations as derive exceeding influence upon all those who are seated under them And such if careless of their Duty become a Snare and the occasion of Destruction to all those who by their Example were betrayed into Sin They fall not alone but like Lucifer seated on an eminent Throne draw Legions of Apostate Angels with them into Hell for the miscarriage of all whom they will be obliged to answer and cannot plead as do those Sinners who Act in the lowest Sphere that thereby they hurt themselves alone Rather the guilt of so many Souls ruined by their ill Example will be laid to their Charge and be revenged on them It is frequently added in Scripture to the Charge of Jeroboam as the utmost Aggravation of his Crime that he made Israel to sin He was not Guilty of a single Apostacy but drew the whole Nation into Idolatry by his Power and Example We need look no farther than the History of that and other Kings of the Jews to be convinced of the influence of a great Example For as often as those introduced Idolatry or restored true Religion so often did the generality of the People fall into Apostacy or return to the worship of the true God The Reward of those pious Princes will receive infinite increase from the blessed Effects of their Example and the Damnation of the others will be heightened from the infection communicated to others by their wickedness And what Princes are in relation to their Subjects in this matter the same are all Superiors in relation to their Inferiors whether in Authority Riches or Knowledge The Piety of a Master reformeth or his Dissoluteness corrupteth a whole Family The Exemplariness of a rich Man instructeth or his wickedness debaucheth all his poorer Dependants The religious Conduct of a knowing Man corrects or his unwary Behaviour perverts all his Admirers And all such shall certainly receive the reward of the good Effects of their exemplary Piety or if their Conduct be contrary the Punishment of their private Sins will be much
obtained by it I proceed in the last place to shew The Honour of God is promoted by the Praises and by the Service of Men. The Praise of God is directly promoted by the good Works of his own Servants while other Men viewing the Excellency of their Actions raise their Thoughts to God the Fountain of them and conceive somewhat yet greater and more excellent in him Necessarily concluding that if that imperfect Light which may be discovered in the Soul of Man be yet so glorious the Perfection of the Divine Nature exceedeth all Imagination That if such eminent Acts of Goodness be performed by frail Men in Obedience to his Will in him devoid of Frailty and Imperfection the Fulness of all Goodness dwells if the Actions of his Servants deserve Love and Praise much more will the Operations of him their Lord and Master proclaim him worthy of Honour and Adoration But this manner of reflecting Honour upon God from the good works of his faithful Servants is not so much respected by our Lord in this place as the Instruction and Conversion of other Men who by the good Example of true Christians may be brought to the knowledge of the Truth to the love of Vertue and to the practice of their Duty to effect which eminent Examples have no less force than Reason or Arguments This giveth Authority to Vertue and taketh off the Reproach of being singular It relieveth the Modesty of new Beginners and encourageth to pursue their Course so well begun notwithstanding the Scorn and Derision of prophane Men. To tender and unexperienced Minds there is no greater Obstacle of Goodness than the fear of being singular thereby The natural impressions of Reason may incline to the Exercise of Vertue but yet they have not the Courage to swim against the Stream to oppose their single Example to the prevailling Corruption of a sinful World nor bear up against the Contempt of wicked Men without the Patronage and Assistance of other great and good Examples whose practice they may plead in their own behalf and that defence which the weakness of their Judgment inableth them not to draw from Reason they may draw from their Authority Altho' not only weaker Minds but even more ingenuous and understanding Persons while unexperienced in the World are not able to shock the Power of a general Example If they be convinced of their Duty they yet want Boldness to execute it and dread nothing more than the Suspicion of Affectation or fear of appearing singular Whence it is that youth especially suffers by ill Examples who through a natural Modesty are ever wont to accommodate themselves to the prevailing Fashion Further a good Example instructeth the more ignorant part of Mankind both in the Rules and the Obligation of their Duty Few are enabled at least few take the pains to examine the Grounds of that Religion into which they were baptized to discover the Truth and convince themselves of the Obligation of it They rely herein upon the Judgment of others whom they esteem wiser than themselves whom they find to profess no Religion or which is all one to Act as if they had none they supercede the Labour of any further Enquiry and dismiss all Resolutions of Goodness On the contrary if it be found by them that wise Men or so accounted who by their Learning were fully enabled to discover the truth of things to find out the Cheat of Religion if it were indeed such have after a diligent and accurate search been so fully convinced of the truth of it that they have been content to hazard their Lives to restrain their Pleasures to deny their Passions from the perswasion of it if great and illustrious Persons who had opportunity of improving all the Pleasures of Life to the most exquisite satisfaction yet moderated and limited them in Obedience to the Laws of Religion To a vulgar Mind there can be no greater assurance than the experience of this and if he finds this he there rests satisfied if not he proceeds no farther And from this experience also he draws the Rules of his Conduct even after a general Conviction of his Obligation In all doubtful Actions and Cases of Conscience he consults the example of his Superiours and pursueth the way which they have marked out to him following them as he supposeth them to follow the true Light Nay to generous as well as vulgar Minds example is an effectual Motive of Vertue To such Emulation is the most powerful Argument and a noble disdain of being exceeded in any thing that is Excellent and Praise-worthy To them the preference of any other is a reproach of their own Sloth and when others have gone before with Reward and Praise it is uneasie to stay behind It was this Principle of generosity which kept up Vertue among the Heathens it is this which gave rise and increase to Arts and Sciences and which now maintaineth Valour Our Lord hath improved the use of it and directed it to a yet more noble End proposing the Excellency and the Rewards of Obedience holding out the Crown of Victory and encouraging us to strive for the Mastery He hath in this Precept concerning Exemplariness given to us a yet further Scope for the Exercise of Generosity not only proposing Rewards to the Conquerors to those of a more elevated Vertue but also to such who excited by their illustrious Example should follow them altho' at a distance making them thereby the Instruments of saving others and that possibly in great numbers At least there is scarce any one of us so inconsiderable who may not have so much Influence and Authority upon some one or other as to move and direct him by his Example which if he doth he will for ever enjoy this satisfaction that he hath been the occasion of infinite Happiness to another which to a good and a generous Mind is a strong Argument of the pursuit and practice of those Vertues and Perfections which may make him Exemplary that so he may promote the Reformation of the World and the eternal Happiness of other Men. It may seem indeed past hope that in this degenerate Age when so few endeavour to obtain their own Salvation or are good for their own sake any should attempt it for the sake of other Men. Yet I do not despair that there are yet such generous Minds left in the World who esteem it no small Felicity to themselves to promote the good of other Men and acting upon this perswasion study to be good and excellent that by their Example others may be drawn to the same Practice and thereby secure to themselves a state of Happiness To such exemplary Persons frequent Praise is given and eminent Rewards promised more particularly in Daniel XII 3. They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to Righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever The Lustre of our Lord's Example is compared to